VA Puget Sound Health Care System to begin vaccinating Veterans and front-line workers

This follows the Food and Drug Administration’s Dec. 11 decision to issue an Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

VA Puget Sound is one of the first 37 VA sites across the country selected to provide the vaccines for its ability to vaccinate large numbers of people and store the vaccines at extremely cold temperatures.

“After many months of tireless efforts, we are thrilled the vaccine is here at VA Puget Sound and honored to be one of the first VA sites to administer it,” said VA Puget Sound Director Michael Tadych.“We are following the VA COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan to ensure a safe, evidence-based and equity-focused vaccine rollout for VA frontline workers and Veterans.”  

“VA employees have provided life-saving COVID-19 care to thousands upon thousands of people, and this plan demonstrates how the department continues to play a crucial role in the nation’s response to the pandemic,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

The plan released today addresses vaccinations for Veterans, staff, and other federal partners, and includes a risk stratification framework for identifying the population(s) at highest risk to receive the vaccine. The plan will be updated over the next two weeks to reflect final recommendations and specifications from FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on COVID-19 vaccines authorized through FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization process.

The plan covers vaccine distribution in the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories where VA provides health care to Veterans, as well as vaccine safety monitoring and vaccine reporting as required by the CDC and Operation Warp Speed.

Veterans seeking additional information should visit the VA Coronavirus Vaccine FAQs webpage, contact their care team, or visit their facility website. For interviews, please contact VA Puget Sound Communication Director Tami Begasse at 206-277-1711 or publicaffairspugetsound@va.gov.

VA Puget Sound provides comprehensive care to more than 155,000 Veterans enrolled at one of its ten facilities in the Pacific Northwest (two divisions in Seattle and Tacoma; seven Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Bellevue, Chehalis, Federal Way, Mount Vernon, Port Angeles, North Seattle, Silverdale and South Sound; and the Community Resource and Referral Center). As the VA’s 5th largest research program, VA Puget Sound has research in virtually every major clinical department, including: TBI and multiple blast exposures; memory improvement and Alzheimer's Disease; PTSD and deployment health; Parkinson’s Disease, diabetes; cancer; substance abuse; lower limb prosthetics; genomics; and Health Services. Additionally, it has seven nationally recognized Centers of Excellence (in areas from limb-loss prevention and prosthetic engineering to primary care education and substance abuse treatment). For more information visit www.pugetsound.va.gov.

Tami Begasse, Public Affairs Officer

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